* Posts by Muscleguy

1945 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2008

LibreOffice still kicking at 40, now with browser tricks and real-time collab

Muscleguy

The first time they lose a net connection and cannot access their MS apps in a crunch situation the desire to have a local desktop copy willl dawn on them. Routers fail sometimes. Contractors dig up cabling by mistake. The cabinets get gremlins in them.

Muscleguy

Re: LibreOffice was nothing to do with Sun?

OO was free too. I used it before LO was born.

Muscleguy

Re: All you need

Other email clients are available. Outlook is not the only email client in the world. I use Thunderbird here at home. I have multiple accounts open on it. It’s absolutely fine. I have to use Outlook at work. I have no control of what’s on my office computer, or the emails I get. I’m the Science Technician and I get a huge slew of emails for the teachers. I delete unread the vast majority of emails I get at work.

Muscleguy

Re: All you need

I have to use Word at work to set up and print labels. I do the same here but with LO. LO sometimes does weird things like not properly grouping items or aligning things you don’t want aligned but I have always managed to work around those. With Word that is much more difficult.

BTW the HSE website lets you download all the chemical warning symbols in colour. You just select one, copy it, past it in, resize and move it and those labels in colour for impact make the kids that bit more careful.

Muscleguy

Re: All you need

Seconded on using Excel when a database is actually required. I have set up more relational databases than I can remember. Every lab I have been in since my first postdo required new database(s) to be set up. I use LO spreadsheets sparingly.

Datacenter energy use to more than double by 2030 thanks to AI's insatiable thirst

Muscleguy

Hoots Mon

Scotland is well placed to cash in then. We have around twice as much renewable energy as we need including storage options and stacks of water for cooling (that we aren’t using for the whisky and gin of course). After Independence when we’re uncoupled from the unfair UK energy market we should be paying a lot less for electrickery than we do now.

This will of course be for sale to rUK, at a price.

Arrr! Can a sailor's marlinspike fix a busted backplane?

Muscleguy

Re: Eudora

Eudora had one good feature: you could have a newsgroup pane open beside your mail. That was the main reason I used it for so long.

Nick Clegg steps down as Meta's top flack in favor of more Trump-friendly candidate

Muscleguy

Re: The Right Honourable Sir Nick Clegg

Means a member of the Privy Council. Alex Salmond was the same.

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

Muscleguy

I recently tried to watch a DVD on my old Macbook Pro with an internal DVD drive and screen sharing on this Air without one. All I got on both machines if sharing was on was grey screens on both machines, it did have sound.

Muscleguy

Maybe it’s living in Dundee but my experience is good. The local Evi person is very good and reliable for eg.

Muscleguy

Be careful one of those might be rigged to assassinate you. Or maybe you will just be unlucky when the battery gives up the ghost and spontaneously disassembles itself.

Fining Big Tech isn't working. Make them give away illegally trained LLMs as public domain

Muscleguy

Also how do you force the AI Co to continue to host their now Public Domain LLM? What’s to stop them pulling the plug or just going bust to avoid having to do it?

Apple called on to ditch AI headline summaries after BBC debacle

Muscleguy

Re: It's garbage

New laws and regulations are issued constantly. How do you ensure your AI knows about them, is interpreting them correctly, has not confused the date passed with the date coming into use etc etc?

The law does not stand still.

Muscleguy

Re: It's garbage

So how does it handle the complexity of Scots Law vs English or Welsh or Northern Irish for that matter? or different State laws in the US?

There isn’t just one law in the world.

American cops are using AI to draft police reports, and the ACLU isn't happy

Muscleguy

But Britain doesn’t have just one legal system. Scots law is completely separate, so is the law in Northern Ireland. Since Devolution Welsh law has diverged from English law to the extent that the Welsh are considering separating theirs out. So there will be English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish law (assuming none of the entities has left the fictional union).

No, I can't help – you called the wrong helpdesk, in the wrong place, for the wrong platform

Muscleguy

Re: Warren's big mistake

I applied for a job with Carphone Warehouse, phone # supplied. I didn’t even get an interview but a couple of months later I got a sales call from them and put 2 & 2 together. Invoked GDPR told they only had my details for a job application and they had better delete them from their sales list or I would escalate it.

I have not heard them since so they know they were being naughty.

Muscleguy

Re: Warren's big mistake

I have never been able to connect to the wifi at work despite following the instructions and being fairly technically competent. Android or iPhone. I have 10GB of data a month and never use it all so I just do not bother any more. It gets used for looking up chemical data on wikipedia during work time. I might scroll twitter during downtime. It plays music to a bluetooth speaker.

Muscleguy

Re: Warren's big mistake

I have Outlook on my iPhone 10. I have to prod it lots periodically to get it to put up notifications. It is otherwise well behaved. Though Outlook generally assumes if someone sends me a message with a meeting in it then it MUST be one I MUST attend.

I work in a school, I’m not a teacher but I get a lot of teacher relevant emails (don’t ask me why). Lots of these have meetings in them . . .

NASA's X-59 plane is aiming for a sonic thump, not a boom

Muscleguy

Re: I must admit, beyond basic research I do not fully get the point of the X-59 program

Indeed, I live in Scotland but have family in New Zealand. That you can fly Dubai or Doha to Auckland direct is a boon. It was very frustrating to touch down in Brisbane on the way. Auckland is just across the ditch and here we were on the ground for 90min. Add on landing, takeoff and taxiing.

Extend that benefit in range further and further is a better investment than supersonic.

The exception might be the supersonic space plane being developed in New Zealand. You go ballistic travelling in a much less dense less resistant medium. Safety and radiation exposure need to be worked out. But that would be a thing for aircrew. I don’t go back very often so it would not be much of a concern any more than it is on conventional flights.

Singapore to increase road capacity by tracking all vehicles with GPS

Muscleguy

Re: fallacy of the rise of the east.....

GPS interference is real. Russia is doing it in the Baltic causing problems for the Finns and Balts. A black hat could make it look like cars are driving in the Straits. What happens if the link to the GPS satellite breaks down? or if war breaks down and only the US is allowed the accurate sort of GPS?

I’m a runner, I have trialled a GPS run tracker on my phone. There are high retaining walls and I run under things. When it loses the signal it draws a straight line from the last position to the new one. So on a corner approaching home it has me running through a house.

I use a Polar footpod to measure pace and distance instead. It notes every footfall. I know where I’ve been and I’m not into posting it on social media.

That position you just applied for might be a 'ghost job' that'll never be filled

Muscleguy
Headmaster

Not news

My wife was the victim of this way back in the Noughties. A local university posted jobs which were right down her line. Very unusually detailed but she hit them all. She never even got an interview. The uni was/is notorious for this. Advertising to fulfil the legal requirements but they have an internal candidate they have promised the post to. If they had interviewed my wife they would have had to give her the job.

The job I currently have was vacant for two years while they advertised it internally. I spotted it the moment they went outside, I subscribed to the right job listing email. They latched onto me and practically begged me to take the job.

US Army should ditch tanks for AI drones, says Eric Schmidt

Muscleguy

Giddy up!

Meatsack horses may be out of the battlefield but they are being reintroduced in the form of robot ones. Ukraine are trialling them as ways to deliver supplies to front line troops and as a med-evac carrier.

Giving casualties to this as med-evac changes warfare. The general calculation is that wounding one soldier takes three out as they care for and transport the casualty. If the care is temporary and then the caring troops remain on site and ready the advantage of wounding is removed.

Considering UKR is fighting a more numerous enemy this could be key for them.

Muscleguy

Re: Yoda says

You can’t hold ground with tanks either. You need boots on the ground for that.

Tanks can take ground but holding requires other assets and informing your artillery that that ground is yours.

Yes, your network is down – you annoyed us so much we crashed it

Muscleguy

Re: Finance dept. are at the root of this issue

It’s when my phone suggests grocer’s apostrophe words which make no linguistic sense I begin to worry. When the correct plural is not offered I really begin to worry. This looks like an AI issue. It has learned that some people use grocer’s apostrophes instead of correct plurals and does not know they are wrong.

Muscleguy

Re: Finance dept. are at the root of this issue

It’s the load bearing sense of bear you are using there. Bear with me literally means help me carry this.

Tesla's big reveal: Steering-wheel-free Robotaxi will charge wirelessly

Muscleguy

Re: Snakeoil

In New Zealand since just about forever you drive up, punch in how much fuel you want (or fill) place nozzle then lock it on leaving you free to for eg use the free screenwash on the car. It automatically stops like a fill does. It doesn’t have to involve paying at the pump either. Petrol stations here make a mint from the few pennnies over we usually manage so have a disincentive to install it in UK. It was old when we left NZ in ’93, still working last I was back. Nobody dears buck the trend.

Also you don’t have to breathe benzene fumes standing over it while you fill. You can set it to fill then wander into the kiosk knowing how long it will take.

Muscleguy

Re: Snakeoil

Indeed, I have a patent water still at work (No you can’t circumvent it). After running for 7 hours the plug when I pull it out is WARM. Its an immersion heating coil (one reason why no conversion, baked ingredients). Has to be switched off, water running 30min before the end to let the coil cool down and avoid tripping the thermal overloads.

The overloads got tested once, while at lunch the tubing on the tap came off so the water drained. They operated and cut the power. Can be reset when cool by simply pressing them back in.

Muscleguy

Re: Snakeoil

Depends if the buses go where you want to go, especially without having to take 3 of them. Around here in the evenings you’re closer to a half hour wait.

Muscleguy

Re: Snakeoil

Your hallway is a larger receptacle for post when you are away or in hospital than a locker will. Also it will make the lockers a target for thieves. It also doesn’t work for rural areas or for those with mobility problems.

Muscleguy

Re: Snakeoil

Doesn’t look like it will take wheelchair users either. In tech developer world nobody is ever disabled.

Smart TVs are spying on everyone

Muscleguy
Pirate

Opt Out Completely

I replaced the TV with a fish tank which sits on the TV stand now. I boxed up the large one I bought my wife so she could game properly and put it in her car when we parted. Our kids have grown and flown no sign of grandkids.

I did not replace it largely for Scottish Political reasons. I decline to be taxed so the BBC can lie to the nation(s).

I recently reconfirmed to the licensing that I do not require a license. Their system cunningly swaps the last two questions to try and catch you out. So beware.

I honestly do not miss it. I tried Netflix on this laptop but wasn’t very impressed and got bored. That happened twice. There are so many books to read and the net. Twitter is the thief of time too.

I have no intention of going back.

After we fix that, how about we also accidentally break something important?

Muscleguy

One reads between the lines and realises they’re at Faslane. Civilisation is outside Faslane.

A working Turing Machine hits Lego Ideas

Muscleguy

Re: Tape is unbounded, not "infinite"

Much simpler to go to the Restaurant then down to the parking garage and ask Marvin.

Muscleguy

HAVE YOU BEEN GOOD?

Watch your mirrors: Tesla Cybertrucks have 'Full' 'Self Driving' now

Muscleguy

Re: "sudden, dramatic and dangerous"

NZ houses are designed NOT to fall down on your head in earthquakes. Nobody has died in a domestic house due to that (in the big Kaikoura Quake one elderly gent died of a heart attack as their Christchurch Quake damaged old farmhouse fell down around them but not on them.

The killer is that the house may get red stickered afterwards meaning you can’t live in it. Whole areas in ChCh were red zoned and have become parkland. That was the effect of liquifaction. Bad place to build.

Our first bought house in Dunedin down in the South was on the former salt marsh which became market gardens which became enforced low rise suburbia. When it rained & it was high tide pools of water would form in the garden. We were separated from 2miles of golden sand Pacific surf beach by high wide compacted sand dunes. Roads on part, a heritage rail on the rest. Playing fields. We lay in bed at night being lulled to sleep by the surf.

Muscleguy

Re: Your mileage may vary

There was a controversial study comparing driving accident stats in Catholic vs Protestant parts of Europe. You can do that wrt German States. Turns out Catholic countries have significantly higher rates. It was put down to the fact that Catholics get their sins cancelled in confession and penance. This fosters a devil may care attitude.

Protestants don’t get that and some sects even say only a sinless elect can ascend to heaven. Creates more respect for the law and rules generally.

Muscleguy

Re: Your mileage may vary

Young person asked me recently why I wouldn’t want a sports car. I did not reply that putting a large sea kayak on one would be tricky. I pointed out they don’t do road humps. It is not possible to get to my place of work without crossing a road hump. Traffic calming, 20mph Secondary, Primary & Nursery.

Muscleguy

Re: Your mileage may vary

It’s a matter of density. A spawn used to work at Highland Hotels on the shore of Loch Awe. The turnoff of the road to Oban was single track and the turnofffs to each Hotel ditto. American midwest tourist gets off plane uses Google Maps to guide a rental car. Beyond Crianlarich if they get that far things get interesting.

The two lane road along the north side of Loch Tay becomes intermittently narrowed by bridges over burns. Timing the approach to those wrt oncoming cars is an art. I wouldn’t trust an AI to notice the bridge and plow into it. They don’t have railings.

A look under the hood of the 3D-printed, Raspberry Pi powered 'suicide pod'

Muscleguy

NO! A plastic bag you have an asphyxia situation as the CO2 builds and the O2 falls. You die gasping for breath or more likely you desperately claw the bag open.

Muscleguy

Re: Serious question

Nitrous made my wife nauseous during childbirth. You don’t want to be barfing during it.

Muscleguy

Re: Canada

When I did science research on animals there were levels of suffering any given experiment was allowed to do (with local or total anaesthesia & analgesics). I have been in the position of having to decide that this mouse needs to be killed to end its suffering. If I do not do this I will be prosecuted for animal cruelty and a breach of the Home Office Animal License conditions.

I am good at stretching mouse necks. I made myself good at it so the mouse would not suffer. They are used to being scruffed, so you put them on a surface go to scruff but stretch suddenly and quickly. Mice die easily from shock.

Muscleguy

Re: Not a hard thing to do

I make O2, CO2 & H2 chemically and collect them in test tubes by water displacement in my job as a school science tech. I’m sure there’s a way to make N2, get Nitric acid to decompose.

Muscleguy

Do you know what a close container of LN2 is called? A bomb.

When carrying a dewar of it back from the big store of it. The clips were down. As soon as we got back to the lab the clips came off. They did not go back on until the dewar was empty.

Muscleguy

Re: "why not use your car as the suicide pod"

People have been known to blow their own brains out rather than endure the pain of a stonefish sting.

Choose your nasty Aussie animal extinction CAREFULLY.

Muscleguy

Re: sounds complicated

You missed the CO2 scrubber. Our urge to breathe is based on blood pH. If the CO2 rises so will your respiration, right up to gasping in panic.

I’m not kidding, My degree & PhD are in Physiology. In 2nd year respiratory lab I was rebreathing high O2 to induce hypercapnia, My partner kept asking if I was okay and I would grunt. He turned me to room air when I started making “seal noises”. My memory is hazy of the incident. My CO2 level in the device was higher than I achieved on the asphyxia (rebreathing the same normal air). We also did hypozia run by a medically qualified lecturer. The O2 level dropped gradually expressed as metres above sea level. You were given sums to do, when you started getting them wrong or just pausing you got turned onto room air.

After my hypercapnia incident It was changed to something definite like a thumbs up. We were on stools so at some point I would have fallen off.

Bending the rules with flexible non-silicon 32-bit RISC-V chip

Muscleguy
Joke

But what happens when you dunk it in a really, really hot cup of tea?

Heart of glass: Human genome stored for 'eternity' in 5D memory crystal

Muscleguy

Re: Monsters

Look up the RNA World Hypothesis, RNA can be both info store & enzyme. It likely came first, the things which break down naked RNA in this world did not exist back then. Experiments which removed all the proteins and the later added RNAs from the ribosome made a ribosome which self assembles and makes protein. It’s slow and buggy but it works and life probably wasn’t that fast back then and buggy can be a feature in exploring morphospace.

So the sequences of those RNAs along with the RNA Pol III mRNAs should suffice.

Disney kicks Slack to the curb, looks to Microsoft Teams for a happily ever after

Muscleguy

Speak it brother. Excel is a spreadsheet, nothing more. It is NOT a database and should NEVER be used as one. I have built Access (Spit!) databases specifically to avoid using Excel. I have designed and built relational databases which work well, generate official reports, print barcodes linked to the data that the benchtop robot could use etc etc.

The thought of trying to do all that in Excel makes me break out in a cold sweat.

Another one is people who don’t know how to anchor the top row so you always have the column names. When the top is miles of scrolling that is unforgiveable.

Muscleguy

That’s me, a Mac native suddenly in a job with a Windows box and Teams and Glow (which is going to hell). Recently my line manager retired. The Technicians Team had a vast number of files loaded, MSDS worked up, Risk Analyses etc so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every year of new students. I noticed in the summer that it was missing from my Teams. I raised a ticket with IT and damn glad I did the Team was in danger of being nuked as it had no owners. They made me an owner and I made my new line manager one so there are two of us.

Nobody else noticed a damn thing of course. Retiring manager didn’t think about the fact he was the only owner of it.

Surely in that situation the software should poll all the Team members about the situation? Then something could be organised. Instead it was headed for the delete shute.

Tor insists its network is safe after German cops convict CSAM dark-web admin

Muscleguy

Re: TOR offers no protection against old-fashioned sleuthing methods

Considering we are now using AI to listen and talk to the animals this is the right approach. In the latest results from that it has been learned that marmosets, tiny gregarious primates, have names for each other. They can be added to dolphins and elephants in that category.